US to offer 80 million vaccines to Covid-hit countries

The United States will send 80 million U.S. vaccines to help countries battling the pandemic by the end of June of this year, the US state department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter has confirmed.

New Delhi: The United States will send 80 million U.S. vaccines to help countries battling the pandemic by the end of June of this year, the US state department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter has confirmed.

In response to a media query on updates on the vaccines that the U.S. has decided to send abroad, Porter said, "The United States will send 80 million U.S. vaccines to help countries battling the pandemic by the end of June of this year. This equates to all that’s manufactured – 60 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses – as soon as they’re reviewed by the FDA, as well as another 20 million doses that are authorized for use in the United States".

"We will continue to donate from our excess supply as that supply is delivered to us. As far as distribution, we will have more to say about how they are distributing the vaccines in the coming weeks", the deputy spokesperson told media on Wednesday during a press briefing.

On Tuesday, US health official Dr Anthony Fauci said that Covid-19 vaccines that are available in the United States are effective against the coronavirus variant that was first detected in India.

As the Covid-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm, countries across the globe are rushing against time to vaccinate their population on an immediate basis. With this, vaccine diplomacy has become one of the key factors of geopolitics for countries around the world. Countries like Russia, China, United States and India are seen using vaccine diplomacy as a tool in their foreign policy agenda.

"The modest neutralization resistance to the 617 antibodies suggests that the current vaccines that we are all using that we have been speaking about would be at least partially and globally quite protective", Dr Fauci had told media persons during a press conference according to the White House.

Currently, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been available to Americans so far. A vaccine developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson company, was authorized in late February this year.

Earlier, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told members of the White House Foreign Press Group that to date, the United States has provided over USD 500 million in Covid relief to India, including contributions from the US federal and state governments, American companies, private organizations and private citizens.

Notably, as the race for vaccine runs high, the Biden-led US administration is eventually seen getting America into vaccine diplomacy as demand rise from different countries.